From the Ashes
by Airship Alice
Summary: CoE fixit. Gwen has built a new Torchwood from the charred remains of the old, but when the 456 come back will the new team be able to handle them without Jack in the lead?  Long live the Teaboy!   Jack/Ianto main, Rhys/Gwen, possible other pairings.


**A/N: Much like many a fangirl before me I have taken it upon myself to fix the horrible mistake that RTD made in killing Ianto. This is my first time writing a fixit, and any advice would be wonderful. Sorry this chapter is short, I promise the rest will be longer (or at least that I'll make an effort for them to be). Hope you enjoy! (Also the rating may go up, if it does I will give warning in advance).  
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It was dark. The darkness was the only thing Ianto was aware of, that and the phantom sensation of Jack's lips on his. Not that he was even sure he had lips anymore. Or a body for that matter. There was just the darkness.

And then, suddenly, there was something more; a faint golden glow, floating out in the inky blackness. Ianto moved towards it. It was warm, comforting. It made the darkness seem less threatening. It was so dim though. Some part of Ianto knew that wasn't right. It should have been brighter. And then, suddenly, it wasn't there anymore. He could still feel it though, inside him, warming him. He felt a bit more corporeal now. That was nice.

He felt something coming towards him, or maybe it was the darkness receding, he wasn't sure. And then he was gasping for breath and trying to sit up. Sitting up hadn't been a good idea, as he hit his head on a metal surface that was much too low for his liking. It was cold. All over. And dark. Not the solid darkness of death, but dark none the less.

And suddenly Ianto knew where he was. He was in a morgue. He had to fight to control his breathing as he began to panic slightly. He had been dead. Dead. But he wasn't anymore? He remembered a golden light. A golden light and Jack kissing him.

There would be time to ponder the meaning of _that_ later; right now he really needed to get the hell out the narrow case he was in. He forced himself to calm down completely before trying anything, knowing any amount of panic would limit his mental capacity.

Deep breaths. There. He could get out of this. He braced his hands against the metal above him and pushed forward with his feet. It had the desired effect and the case slid smoothly open. Ianto gingerly lowered his bare feet to the cold floor, worried that his body might not feel like holding him upright at the moment. He let out a sigh of relief as he stood and stayed standing; now to get out of the building and find Jack and Gwen.

Jack. He hoped the man was alright, Gwen as well of course. It was just that the most recent memory in his mind was of dying with Jack, and he always worried about the man's ability to come back from anything, no matter how many times it was proven to work.

No time for that though, he berated himself. Who knew what time it was or what hours the coroner worked, and he knew he'd best be long gone before anyone showed up.

The Welshman wrapped the thin blanket he had been covered with around his waist and tied it off tightly, before beginning the search for an exit. The door was an obvious choice, but as he neared it he noticed alarm sensors on the frame. He looked out through the tiny window in the door to see identical sensors on the other side. He figured all the main doors most likely had double sensors, so there was that plan shot.

He moved to the window next. It was high up, but didn't seem to have any alarms on it, and it had the added bonus of taking him directly outside instead of through the hospital. He rolled the autopsy table below the window and climbed up. On closer inspection he saw that the window did in fact have an alarm on it, but unlike the door it was only on the inside. He was able to disarm it fairly easily thanks to some basic training he had gotten from Tosh, and as he swung the window open he whispered a thanks to his departed friend.

The drop to the ground wasn't very far, but Ianto had overestimated what his body could handle, and landed rather awkwardly. He had to lie in the though, dead grass for a bit as he regained his breath, having had the wind knocked out of him. After a moment though he refound the ability to breath (the second time in less than an hour), and started out away from the cold, brightly lit building. He was damn lucky they didn't have security cameras, though at the moment he was too focused on getting back to somewhere familiar to worry about it.

It had been a long time since he had lived in London, and the short time they had spent in the city hadn't been enough to refresh his memory sufficiently. The result was that, within twenty minutes, he was well and truly lost. He also noted with slight amusement that he was still nearly naked.

As luck would have it he had lost himself in a residential area, and there was a fair amount of washing hung out on lines. In a few moments he had abandoned the sheet for a pair of pants that fit reasonably well (if a tad snug) and a shirt that was much too large. It seemed he would have to remain without shoes, at least for the time being.

Picking a direction at random (but one he was certain wouldn't lead him back towards the hospital) Ianto set off again, feeling a good deal better about the whole mess.

After a bit of trudging through people's back lawns he seemed to be coming up on a more busy section of the city. Sure enough, as he rounded the next corner he was greeted by the bright glow of neon signs. He had never been so glad to see a Tesco in his life. He was even more glad of the payphone that sat forlornly off to the side of the building, and quickly approached it like an old friend. It was only as he reached the lonely box that he realized he didn't have any money.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a frustrated sigh. So close to contacting someone and he was held back by such a small thing as spare change. So absorbed in his mental berating of his public phone service (Why did you have to pay anyway? What if it was an emergency? What if your grandmum was in hospital, and your cell phone had died, and you had no pocket change?) that he didn't notice the elderly woman walking up to him until she nudged him with her cane.

Ianto jumped slightly as he turned to regard the little woman, who was clutching what must have been at least thirty tins of cat food and a head of cabbage in Tesco bags. "Do you need some change dear?" she asked sweetly.

Ianto was rather dumbstruck by the simple bit of generosity but gladly accepted it. He helped the woman carry the cat food to her car before thanking her again, quite profusely, and rushing back to the phone both.

She had given him enough for three calls. With any luck he'd only need one.

As he listened to the dial tone, waiting for Jack to pick up, he mused about what had happened while he had been… dead.

It seemed that the 456 were gone, or at least that there was no more panic over the situation. There were no military personnel running about abducting children, no tangible alert, everything seemed calm. He rather hoped it was, though it begged the question; just how long had he been dead? What if it had been years? But he doubted that. He forced himself to be rational. He had woken up in a morgue so it couldn't have been more than two or three days.

Ianto was startled out of his musings by a pleasant female voice, "We're sorry, but the number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please hang up and-"

Ianto hung up. Perhaps Jack's phone had been destroyed, wouldn't be the first time.

Two calls left. He rang Gwen's cell next.

It had been a couple days now. Things were slowly starting to edge their way back towards normal. The children had mostly been returned to their homes, though the public's mistrust of the government was still high. Gwen wasn't certain what she was supposed to be doing. It was just her now; no one else from Torchwood was left.

Or at least that's what she had thought before receiving a rather unexpected call in the late hours of the night. The number was one she didn't recognize, but these days that didn't mean much. She had given her number to countless people in the hopes that maybe she could help them though these tough times, anything to get her mind off the death and disappearance of her friends. So when she answered she had expected it to be another family with a missing child, not someone she had presumed to be dead.

Hearing Ianto's voice had been so much of a shock she had almost dropped the phone. As it was she kept her grip on it and quickly made her way to the sofa before sinking heavily down onto it. "I-ianto?" she asked tentatively.

His voice was rough when he replied, but definitely Ianto. "Yeah Gwen. It's me. Bit of an odd story, or maybe not if you think about all that's happened in Torchwood. Is Jack there Gwen? I-I'd really like to talk to him. And where are you?"

"Ianto I- Jack, he's… Not here. He left. We, we thought you were dead," Gwen stumbled over the words, but was fairly certain they came out clearly enough.

"I was," Ianto stated simply. "At least I'm fairly certain I was. I've never died before but it matches up with what Jack has told me, and what Owen was saying after we brought him back. And what do you mean he's left? To where?"

"I'm not sure. Some other world I suppose. He didn't say. Just… left. Look Ianto, this would probably be easier for both of us if you were here. You know the warehouse we were basing out of before… before this all ended? We've just moved to another, same1 area. God Ianto, I'm so glad you're still here. Being the last one- it's been… it's been trying."

"I'm sure. I'm sorry Gwen; you don't deserve to go through that. I'll be there as soon as I can, and maybe we can get this all figured out. Jack can't have left."

"Alright Ianto. I'll see you in a bit," Gwen said as brightly as she could manage. She then hung up the phone and proceeded to breakdown in tears.

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**A/N: So, love it? Hate it? Think I should change something? As always I value your opinions more highly than gold. I promise to make a real effort in getting new chapters written in a timely manner. I know I suck at it. .  
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**R&R? :D  
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